Monday, March 30, 2015

A Solar Family

One of the techniques I follow to either understand it better or elaborate to others about any concept is by trying to simplify it by comparing with concepts we are already comfortable with or things that are very obvious. This makes me to relate my understanding and bring the missing pieces together to complete a jigsaw. There are exceptions while doing so that everything in one concept cannot be similar in every aspect and well that’s probably why they are two different concepts and hence they are just metaphors. Being an IT student, OOPS (Object Oriented Programming) was something I benefitted a lot with this approach. Classes, Objects, Methods, Attributes, Polymorphism, Inheritance, etc. name a topic, I can wake up from a 3rd level of inception dream and talk about it fluently. (Ahem! I got to revalidate that statement after a long gap but yes, there I can still use my own medicine).

When I woke up in the middle of the night (3 a.m. on a Saturday morning is barely early morning) and started comparing Solar system with family and relationships [Nothing to do with Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, honestly you might find my reading habits so bad that I could not read more than 4 pages of it, neither 50 shades for that matter]. Don’t you dare asking me now, which one I was trying to understand comparing to what? It goes without saying, I found no soul in a mood to discuss this with and hence pulled my slave (? Or probably the other way around) out and started typing…

Here we go cruising on a snail pace to the topic. If we assume Earth to be the relationship or marriage, two most important constants the Sun and the Moon would be man and wife, now who is who? My inborn male chauvinism led me to first instinct of attributing man with Sun (head of the solar family and hence, proved!) but it only took me a split second to realize that it’s a falsified attribution. Even in a single income family where the man works; he is definitely the moon. I could (or you could) convince myself I am really the Sun, but I am sure of dishonesty with self. I said moon, the reason I function is because, of the source of light energy she gives me to do nothing but going around the marriage and still appear to be bright in the night. And working for livelihood I compare with nothing, one; it appears to be miniscule given the magnanimity of the task of managing the family and two; as someone (famous?) said ‘No one recounts that he/she should have worked for an extra minute on the death bed’. Yet, I do love my work because that’s the only nothing I can be good at. Waning and waxing may not be as regular as fortnightly but yeah, waning are the days when my boss pats me for doing nothing (remember, that’s work!) and waxing, you can guess it. Just two more significant events probably are New moon days, when you abruptly wake up in the middle of a night and start writing something which no one cares of its existence and on a full moon day I would have sumptuous three course meal and hit the sac blissfully without resorting to Netflix or YouTube.

Now, the most awaited part: The Sun, how much can you write about the supremo of any species. She manages the system, earth rotates around her and hence the moon. We might start under the assumption that Sun is taking rest during the night, but as you start realising the fact isn’t so. The moment Sun rests our solar system ceases to exist, this is neither an understatement nor an overstatement. What about the seasons? They are probably different moods of the Sun; it starts with spring when the Sun is in real good mood. Everything seems to be so beautiful; daffodils, lush green trees, bright days, and all good things we can ever imagine. It is warm but not hot, cold but not chilly, drizzles but does not pour down. Then comes summer, burns down a bit of energies, when it appears to work hard and sweat a lot, still feels good maybe that’s when earth is more productive and you wait for autumn to arrive. Yet another beautiful season, it starts getting cold and gives a break from working out; things will start changing again, it may look beautiful and relaxing but constantly reminds of the winter setting in at times with heavy downpours and flooding. And then arrive cold freezing days, a different pasture on the canvass of life, its white but not so bright, looks good but feels chilly. A calm period probably the days when we don’t talk. Hence, they are different moods helping the relationship in their own way of revolving around the circle of life. Every season has to start and end like any mood there is no escape; sometimes it is wintrier and sometimes it is torrid but there are fillers in between which soothe in every season, we know for sure the tide will change and days will become better.

The next interesting part in a family are obviously the kids, bloody hell they are like tiny meteors. They create a bang on impact on the earth, they often create tremors but they do leave beautiful patterns on the earth which makes it look more meaningful. The moon is usually very concerned and edgy about these eerie creatures as they always creep the moon out of the mind, making it think like facing a bullet point blank but in reality that would be missing the moon at least a million miles away of which the Sun controls meticulously to land in the right areas to create a meaningful pattern. Once they whizz past the trembling moon, moon is the proud owner and gets a blush every time it sees them (always from a fair bit of distance).

Then comes other planets who are the family and friends who observe from a distance, and keep moving on in their own orbits. An honorary (pure pun) mention about the Haley’s comet (the in-law factor) which comes in regular intervals and scares the hell out of everything but never really endangered.

As the Saturday morning gets bright and my head becomes light; it is worth mentioning about my own beautiful and loving Sun that she is the best Sun in the world that happened to exist and I love her every bit. The meteors seems to be waking up; I better get back to sleep!